


a traveling man, straight from the can

by yugto



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Universe, Filipino Kuroo Tetsurou, M/M, Road Trips, the inherent romanticism of sharing earbuds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:34:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28708239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yugto/pseuds/yugto
Summary: Tetsurou drops his voice, looking at the sleeping Frogs around them. “Hey, but this is basically a date, right? Can we not talk about work?”“We’re literally both on a work trip right now,” says Kei, unimpressed.“Yeah, but we get to spend the next—” Tetsurou checks his watch. “—four hours and seven minutes together. Might as well make the most of it.”Does a 4.5-hour bus trip from Sendai to Yotsuya count as a date? If you ask Kuroo Tetsurou, the answer is yes.
Relationships: Kuroo Tetsurou/Tsukishima Kei
Comments: 10
Kudos: 38





	a traveling man, straight from the can

**Author's Note:**

> happy krtsk day! (it's still the 11th for one more hour here, so i'm counting this as a win.)
> 
> title from [waiting for the bus](https://youtu.be/lbK6TmZh3UE) by eraserheads!

Here’s a fact about the Sendai Frogs: Tsukishima Kei sits alone on the bus to away games. Once in a while, Koganegawa will plop himself down next to Kei to talk his ear off about the latest inhuman feat Kageyama’s pulled off, or Kyoutani will sit next to him precisely to avoid sitting next to Koganegawa. But for the most part, his teammates know to leave him alone on the bus. When his headphones are on, Tsukishima Kei is not to be disturbed. 

_Especially_ on early-morning bus rides like this one. It’s 6 AM one summer Saturday when he boards the team bus to travel to their game against the Yotsuya Motor Spirits. His sleep mask is pulled over his eyes, his headphones are on, and he’s fully prepared to sleep all the way to Yotsuya.

And then someone has the _audacity_ to sit down next to him. 

For a moment, Kei debates the merits of pretending to be asleep already, before a very familiar voice asks, “Hey, Tsukki. Kei. You awake?”

He pushes his sleep mask up to see none other than Kuroo Tetsurou sitting next to him. Before his brain can catch up to his mouth, he asks, “What are you doing here?”

“Wow, it’s nice to see you too.” Tetsurou rolls his eyes, slinging his arm casually over Kei’s shoulders. “I was out in Sendai to cover the Kiniro Sports Jumpers’ game last night. But one of my coworkers came down with something, so I have to cover your game against the Motor Spirits tonight, too. My manager told me to get a ride back to Tokyo with your team.”

If there’s one thing Kei’s learned from his six months of dating Tetsurou, it’s that the JVA is ruthlessly economical, preferring to save on transportation costs by sending its employees around the country on team buses whenever possible. In the past year, Kei has received _so many_ chaotic selfies from the back of the various V. League team buses (including, notably, one from the MSBY Black Jackals’ bus, where Bokuto appeared to be holding something that had been set on fire).

This, though, is Tetsurou’s first time on a Sendai Frogs bus since Kei joined the team. It’s a four-and-a-half hour drive from Sendai City to Yotsuya. Who _knows_ what kind of chaos his teammates could get up to in that time? Mentally, Kei says goodbye to the few hours of sleep he’d been planning to get. The combined might of Tetsurou and Koganegawa presents too great of a risk to ignore.

But surprisingly, the bus ride is quiet – probably thanks to Koganegawa passing out the second they hit the road. Tetsurou has politely withdrawn his arm from around Kei’s shoulders, out of respect for the fact that Kei hasn’t actually told the Sendai Frogs they’re dating. (He’s also not sure what telling more people would do for Tetsurou’s JVA assignments – would they stop letting him cover the Frogs’ games? Doctors aren’t supposed to treat members of their own families, due to personal bias. Do the same codes of ethics apply to volleyball league promoters?)

Tetsurou pokes him between the eyes. “Hey, stop thinking so hard. You’re gonna get premature wrinkles. What are you even thinking about?”

 _You_ , Kei doesn’t say, because Tetsurou would never, ever let that go. “We haven’t played the Motor Spirits in a while,” he says instead. “I heard they’re doing pretty well this season.”

“Yeah, Daishou’s been insufferable.” Tetsurou rolls his eyes. If Kei didn’t know they were actually good friends, it would be easy to mistake them for enemies; Tetsurou and Daishou are just the kind of friends who love to antagonize each other at every turn. (Tetsurou tends to attract a lot of friends like that.) He drops his voice, looking at the sleeping Frogs around them. “Hey, but this is basically a date, right? Can we not talk about work?”

“We’re literally both on a work trip right now,” says Kei, unimpressed.

“Yeah, but we get to spend the next—” Tetsurou checks his watch. “—four hours and seven minutes together. Might as well make the most of it.”

It _is_ kind of stupidly sweet to think of the next few hours as a date, even if Kei wasn’t informed of it. “I would’ve dressed nicer if I knew you were taking me out today,” he quips, gesturing to his bright green warmups.

“Can’t have you outshining me. You know me, I always have to be the best-dressed person in a room.” Tetsurou pauses. “Or a bus.”

Kei rolls his eyes, but lets Tetsurou scoot a little closer anyway. A quick glance around shows that no one nearby is awake to witness this, so he might as well. “Alright, what’s your plan for this date?”

“I show you this song my sister sent me, and then we take a nap the rest of the way to Yotsuya, because it’s really too early to be alive right now.”

“My kind of date.”

Tetsurou grins. “Only the best for my moonshine. Here, take an earbud.” He presses an AirPod into Kei’s hand; Kei nobly resists the urge to make a joke about Tetsurou being a rich boy now. “This song’s called _Buwan_ , which means ‘moon’, so obviously I had to show it to you before you knock out.”

“How many moon-related jokes are you going to make on my name?” Kei grouses, plugging the AirPod into his ear. 

Tetsurou’s grin turns into a sincere smile. “Oh, I’m never gonna stop, moonshine.” Kei puts his head down on Tetsurou’s shoulder in a (vain) attempt to hide his blush. In his ear, an electric guitar picks out a quiet melody, and soon a voice layers smoothly on top. A couple of minutes into the song, Kei realizes another voice has joined in; to his right, Tetsurou croons quietly, “ _Ang iyong ganda’y umaabot sa buwan, ang tibok ng puso’y rinig sa kalawakan…_ ”

Lulled by the music in one ear and his boyfriend’s voice in the other, Kei drifts off to sleep on Tetsurou’s shoulder.

🚌

When he wakes up, they’re pulling into the Motor Spirits arena’s parking lot in Yotsuya. Kyoutani and Koganegawa are both giving them curious glances. As they get off the bus, Tetsurou pulls Kei to the side. Kei flicks a look back over his shoulder at Koganegawa and Kyoutani, who are both outright staring by now, then asks, “Alright, what’s this about?”

“Kei, listen. What I’m about to say is purely as Kuroo Tetsurou, Nekoma Men’s Volleyball Captain 2012-2013, and not in my capacity as Kuroo Tetsurou, completely unbiased employee of the JVA Sports Promotion Division.” Tetsurou puts his hands on Kei’s shoulders with great solemnity. “I am not wishing you luck, moonshine, because I know you don’t need it. But _kick their asses for me_. I need something to hold over Daishou’s head the next time we go out drinking.”

His boyfriend is absolutely ridiculous. Kei loves him nonetheless. “Yeah, yeah.” With a fond eyeroll, he shrugs Tetsurou’s hands off his shoulders. “I’ll do my best. See you later, Tetsu.”

“See you later.” Tetsurou leans in to peck him on the cheek, then strolls off into the arena, flashing his press badge at a security guard on the way in. 

Kei watches him go, then turns back to his team. Most of them have already gone ahead to the arena, leaving just Kyoutani and Koganegawa behind. Kyoutani looks mildly perplexed, but Kei notices with a growing feeling of dread that Koganegawa is opening his mouth. He can already feel the headache coming on as Koganegawa practically unhinges his jaw to yell, “Hey, Tsukki, _when were you going to tell us you were dating Kuroo fucking Tetsurou?!_ ”

**Author's Note:**

> the song kuroo's singing is ["buwan"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jWtIybFlLs) by juan karlos! the lyrics he's singing translate to "your beauty reaches to the moon / your heartbeat can be heard from space", which i do think sounds like the kind of cheesy thing kuroo would sing. (we as a society should hc kuroo as part filipino more often i think. thank you for coming to my ted talk)
> 
> if you liked this, you can show it to your friends by [rting the promo tweet](https://twitter.com/tadhanastar/status/1348888166988541954?s=20)! i'm [@tadhanastar](https://twitter.com/tadhanastar) on twitter, come yell with me there!


End file.
